March 27, 2008

Lost in Hulu.

By Dr. Bud E. Bryan.

Austin, Texas. I probably should have ignored or deleted the email that Peter sent me a couple of weeks ago about this new website called hulu.com, a venture by NBC Universal that has altered my on-line life completely, but I couldn't help it and I just had to check it out. For a TV Kid like myself, Hulu is a treasure-trove of complete episodes from classic television shows, new shows, movies, etc., that just goes on and on and on. And it's free. It isn't YouTube, which is good, because I actually like it better.

Just last night, for instance, I stumbled upon a whole slew of "McHale's Navy" episodes, one of the classic comedies from the 60s starring Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Comdr. McHale, the brilliant Tim Conway as Ensign Parker and the magnificent Joe Flynn as the memorable Captain Binghampton, with an indelible cast of characters that careened around the South Pacific during WWII in an unending series of uproarious adventures that are still hilarious to this day. The writing and the ensemble acting on "McHale's Navy" was every bit as good as any "M-A-S-H" episode (if not noticeably better), and you can see how the creators of the Korean War comedy spent a lot of time studying the earlier show.

But that's just one sliver of an example. You name the TV show - new or old - and it's on Hulu. And that's not even getting into the full-length movies that are available on the site either. On the first day I went to the site the featured movies were "The Big Lebowski" and "The Girl Next Door." I don't know about you, but I never get tired of watching The Dude and his pals in their excellent L.A. story. I mean when you're sitting at your computer and it's right there, I defy you not to at least watch a few minutes of it. The same goes for "The Girl Next Door" - the spiritual successor and tribute film to "Risky Business" - the best coming of age movie ever done. "The Girl Next Door" features the future stars Emile Hirsch and the frighteningly delicious Elisha Cuthbert in a romp that rivals "Business" at every turn.

I can only offer a word of caution before you go to Hulu, however. I don't care how snobby your viewing tastes are, or how allegedly "disinterested" you are in succumbing to watching sitcoms old and new, or classic and recent movies, etc. Because one tour of Hulu and you'll be hooked.

Before I got lost in Hulu, I was going to write about the Indians buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, but that wasn't worth a whole column. Tata will either maintain the status quo for the brands, or they'll screw the whole thing up even more. We here at AE are among the dissenters who intensely dislike the new XF sedan, by the way, unlike Autoweek which can't seem to help itself in lavishing praise on the car in every other issue. There is nothing in the least that says "Jaguar" about the car except for maybe the grille. The shape reminds us of derivative Japanese design (especially the rear 3/4 view), and the whole car leaves us cold. If that's the future design direction for the brand, then good luck. But then again maybe the Indians will surprise us all and do a proper successor to the great sports cars that once carried the Jaguar colors on race tracks around the world. Short of doing that, we can't muster enough energy to care about the brand.

Anyway, that's all I have for this week...

Adios until the next time.